World Cup Blogs 32: Uruguay

Uruguay may be last in the English alphabet in this World Cup but in two important ways they are first.

They were the first nation to host a World Cup (in 1930) and the first to win it that same year.  They have also won it again, and finished in the top four three times too.

The qualification of Iceland at this tournament was remarkable for, as we noted in an earlier blog, it is a country with the population of a single London Borough.  Uruguay has arguably achieved something more remarkable because its achievements span 80 years of World Cups.  

Every other nation that has won a World Cup has had a population at least 10 times that of Uruguay, usually 20 times or more.  And remember, Uruguay has won it twice and sustained some success right through to the 21st century.

Perhaps more than any other country Uruguay ARE the World Cup.  Certainly Brazil are closely identified with it, but we all know other things about Brazil (beaches, rainforests, coffee, nuts, carnival).  Every European country has other associations than World Cup football that readily come to mind.  But Uruguay?  I've never even met anyone whose visited Uruguay, or if they have then they couldn't be bothered to tell me about it.  In my experience if I think of Uruguay I think of the World Cup.

It reminds me of the man who, in Jesus' parable, received the one talent.  The man whose master had given him five made five more, the one given two made two more and alike they are pleasing.  The man with only one talent did nothing with it and incurred his master's deep displeasure.  

Life, population, or whatever, does not offer equal opportunities to all.  Uruguay ends my blogging on this year's World Cup by reminding us to do something with what life offers us - and especially with the gift of grace that is offered in the Saviour of the World, the Lord Jesus.

World Cup Blogs 28: Spain

Writing this on a blisteringly hot day in London, I remember a journey in similar heat to visit this place in Barcelona.


It is impossible not to be impressed by the Nou Camp Stadium. History, in the football sense, has been made here time and again. It is the largest stadium in Europe and somehow creates a sense of excitement even when the only thing that is currently happening is that the grass is growing!

Then there is the Motto.

Most stadia have seats coloured to spell out something - frequently the club's initials or nickname. Not so Barcelona. Instead it spells out, in Catalan, the Motto,

MORE THAN A CLUB

The motto reflects the Catalunyan pride in Barcelona such that the club came to represent the Catalan nation and culture. This was especially true in the days of Franco's dictatorship when most expressions of Catalan culture were suppressed. Supporting FC Barcelona was a political act.  It has continued and been revisited in the Catalan pressure for independence since the last World Cup.

Football - other sport too of course - is often a MORE THAN.  Even this summer, England's unexpectedly extended stay into the semi-finals of the tournament did something positive in the unifying mindset of the country.

Life is never as compartmentalised as we are inclined to think.  Football Teams are never just football teams, houses never just houses, holidays never just holidays, churches never just churches; the weaving of life demands that we seek God's ways in it all.

World Cup Blogs 24: Saudi Arabia

What could be more natural then adorning the pub with the flags of the 32 nations in the World Cup tournament?

But nothing in this world is simple.  In some places local pressure has insisted on the removal of the Saudi Arabian flag from such places because its Islamic connections should not be associated with alcohol.

In a previous World Cup FIFA (football's governing body) fell foul of the Saudis by intending to have footballs with a flag in each panel.  It turns out, then, that drinking by the Creed (for the Muslim Creed is written on the flag) or kicking it is not at all the thing to do.

I have some sympathy for the Saudi problem: every church has a set of dos and don'ts for its premises which can be similarly awkward.  The net effect of it all is to imply a general view that whereas sport unites, religion divides.  But maybe they need to choose to change their football participation or the flag.

Perhaps this kind of religious sensitivity is why the Lord Jesus shredded so many of the religious predilections of his day, eating and drinking with sinners, touching lepers, blessing children and healing on the Sabbath - just generally saying something about people being more important to God than religious rules designed to protect God but divide people.

World Cup Blogs 20: Peru

I have one lifelong, abiding admiration for Peru's football team.  Until recently I thought this admiration was largely my own, but the good old internet has uncovered that I am far from alone.

When I say lifelong I mean from the 1970 World cup onward as I only heard the 1966 finals on the radio, and anyhow Peru did not qualify.  Here's a picture:

What do I admire?  The design of the Peruvian football shirts.  To an untutored eye just another shirt perhaps, but in reality unique in their design and strikingly stylish and memorable. Click on this sentence to read one of many articles that share my opinion.

So, although I couldn't readily call to mind the name of a single Peruvian footballer or a single Peruvian football result, I could easily remember or draw a picture of their kit.  They must have had a very clever stylist to design something so lastingly admired in the crowded field of football kits.

But no. 

It turns out that the design is derived from school footballers wearing a red sash over their shirts to distinguish them from the boys in the other team.  One of life's greatest and divine principles is that beauty is so often found in simplicity.  Consider the lilies, how they grow . . .

World Cup Blogs 15: Japan

Every World Cup is about much more than goals and results.  That Iceland, for example, are there at all I noted in an earlier blog is an amazing achievement.

Then there's Japan.  They have become famous in this tournament not for the players but for their fans.  Not for their fans during the game either.  But because (and difficult to imagine how counter cultural this is to me, and English football supporter) after their first game their fans were filmed cleaning up their litter before they left the stadium.

Bluntly, when English fans go to a tournament we are grateful if all of them have left the seats fixed in place.

If goodness is a powerful cultural weapon in a football tournament, how much more true are the words of the apostle Peter regarding goodness as a powerful weapon for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ:

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

World Cup Blogs 5. Colombia

Colombia?  Football?

For those of us old enough to remember, it means one thing - the world's most memorable goalkeeper, Rene Higuita.  Unique in so many ways, he was the main reason some of us wanted to watch Colombian games at previous World Cups - what might he do next?

This video doesn't show it but his style of play resulted in some awful moments too but risk = entertainment!  As he has said himself, no goalkeeper today would be allowed the creative and risk space to do what he did.

Somewhere in the heart of the Christian faith is risk.  In our church we are about to look more closely at one of Paul's missionary journeys and to read them is to feel the distance between the vibrant Christianity of the(often imprisoned and even executed) early believers and the 10:30 Sunday morning way the rich-world church does its faith today. 

May God make us interesting!

World Cup Blogs: 4. Brazil

When I was growing up Brazil was synonymous for me with one thing - brilliant football - and one person - Pele.  As ever, in this 2018 World Cup, Brazil are one of the favourites - though their star tends to shine less brightly than it did those years ago.

Yet today when I think of Brazil I do not only associate it with football.  Instead I associate it with the rainforest, or more specifically, the shrinking of the rainforest.  Below are two satellite images 14 years apart, the first the remaining rainforest, the second that which was there in Mato Grosso in 1992 (courtesy wikipedia).

There are many things that rudely put football in its place and perspective and this is one of them.  Would we rather have a great World Cup or reduce the worldwide losses of rainforest from its current level of - wait for it - over 70 million acres a year?

God has made us stewards of creation first and made us to be footballers as a somewhat lower priority.

A soul-warming end to the football season

Nathan Jones, manager of Luton, talks about his faith.

Fun and Forsakenness

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

At 3:00pm this afternoon (New Testament term = about the 9th hour) a whole bunch of football matches kicked off.  Lacking a nearby football match just wait a couple of hours and the doors opened at the German Bier Festival.

Could anything be less appropriate for Good Friday?

Well, here's the strange thing.  Yes.

Depending on how one views such things there is a case to be made that religious services and prayer meetings (our Church had one) whilst laudable in a way are less reminiscent of the first Good Friday than the atmosphere of a game or beer festival.

I suppose that in this land what we are really seeing is the cultural dismembering of a nation's Christian heritage.  This is a trending reality that we may regret.  But this is not at all the same thing as a disaster.

Salvation, and the faith that follows Jesus Christ, emerged from the worldly raucous atmosphere outside the Holy City at Golgotha.  We have certainly lost something, and we are likely to lose more, but we have not lost our true story or our true Saviour; we have not lost Good Friday!

In Vain

Tonight England played San Marino in an International.  But the question is - why?  San Marino are the lowest ranked of 208 football nations and have lost every one of dozens of games they have played in competitive football.  If any team ever turned up in vain it is them.

 

In vain.  Only two small words, but they conjure up rotten thoughts for most of us.  At its least threatening it will be memories of queues that were endured only for the doorman to turn us away, the cashier to close or the shop shelf to prove empty.  We waited in vain.  Worse - much worse = an investment, an emigration, or a nation’s decision to go to war.  No-one wants such things to be in vain.

 

In literature the greatest and therefore most painful experience of acting in vain is summed up by, among others, the English poet Abraham Crowley,

 

A mighty pain to love it is,

and 'tis a pain that pain to miss;

but of all the pains,

the greatest pain is to love,

but love in vain.

 

Whatever else we do in vain, the last thing of all we want to do in vain is to love.  Yet in a myriad of broken relationships - spouse with spouse, child with parent, brother with sister - human beings inflict this emptiness upon one another so that whole swathes of lives appear to have been invested in vain.  Could any feeling be worse? Could anything be worse?

Unfortunately yes.  And there is a whole Bible book devoted to reflecting upon it.  Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, bewails the wisdom of Ecclesiastes.  “Let’s look at everything”, says the writer, “and look - it is all, from cradle to grave, from king to pauper, from nurture to wealth-creating, from history to hope - in vain.”  Life is Vanity Fair.

 

But then, as the Apostle Paul reflects on the Resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15) he in the living Christ the key of purposeful living:   For you know that your labour is NOT in vain in the Lord. 

Pre Seasons

The new Football League season kicks off at about the time everyone is off on their holidays.  The reason is next summer's World Cup in Brazil and the need for the English season to be wrapped up well before it.

 

Here, then, ends preseason.  This is a strange time of sweaty endeavour to get fit for the winter to come.  In blistering heat the lads run themselves into shape for the wet and windy nights in some football outpost on a Tuesday night in November and blistering heat is a distant, incredible memory.

 

The disconcerting thought occurs to me, though, that the actual season is also a preseason - which is why it starts so early.  Beyond the parochial ranks of the local supporters the big world of football is looking at next summer and the season for which we have just had the preseason is itself a preseason.

This week hundreds of local families in and around Wycombe will have sent their children and teenagers to Lighthouse Holiday Clubs and Fresh Cafe youth nights.  These are brilliant events.  We are very blessed to have them.

 

Certainly one way of approaching Children and Youth ministry is that it is a kind of preseason.  This is alarming for two reasons - the most obvious being that children and young people are real people (and may not make adulthood) and need to know forgiveness and faith right where they are. The second reason is that the attrition between children's ministry and adult faith is appallingly high.  No truism seems less true now than the old maxim, Give me the child for seven years and I will give you the man.

 

I am somewhat of the view that, like the season about to unfold, the whole season of life is preseason.  Admittedly the World Cup with its gathering of the nations under a near equatorial sun seems a distant dream right now.  Yet it is shaping everything about football in months to come.

 

And so our whole life, even to what we misleadingly describe as our last breath, is a season that is really a preseason.  And under the same Son that we now live, the nations will gather for the Real Thing and the momentary things of preseason will give way in the shadow of its glory.

 

Maranatha.

Namebearing

This week I'm off to a Sports Chaplaincy Conference.  It has come at a very difficult time . . .

Now even a cursory knowledge of Sports Chaplaincy would surmise that its conversations and pastoral care are exercised without regard to the position or performance of the Club in question.  There might be nuances but whether the chaplain to Lancashire Cricket Club or Gloucester Rugby or Wycombe Wanderers Football Club or Manchester United - the essence in each case is surely the same and equally worthy?

After all, we all know that the Lay Pastor of the chapel with 12 members (the same as the number of the apostles) is to be as honoured as the Senior Executive Supreme Leader Pastor of Multiple Campus Mega Church of London, Paris, Sydney and Los Angeles.  (Though we really only want to check out the website of the latter actually.  And ask him (it would never be her) to write books.  He speaks at World Prayer Events too).  But that's not to honour him above the Lay Pastor of course (or Jesus).  Anyway . .

 

The thing is, Wycombe Wanderers aren't doing very well.  Is the Chaplain responsible?  In my defence they have managed an unlikely Cup Semi-Final and promotion on my watch.  No, of course I'm not responsible.  But there is this strange association thingy.  When I go with other slightly chuffed chaplains whose Clubs are doing things like winning games and scoring I sense a pastoral pity descending upon me.  As though I needed to be chaplained!  This has happened in the League above but now, as the team in the second-worst position in mainline English football I feel the enveloping pastoral sympathy from 48 hours away.

Never mind that we had a great Harvest Celebration today, that I spoke to people about faith last week, welcomed in new members to our Church, visited a young family moving closer to God, had a great Elders Meeting, even had a great day of conversations at the said Football Club.  All these pastoral joys are submerged at the Chaplains Conference as I wear the badge.  It says REV JOHN ROBERTS.  And then.  WYCOMBE WANDERERS.  You can see it in their pastoral eyes.  "Poor old John".  "You're having a hard time, aren't you?".  "What's gone wrong?"  The sympathy is so strong - it hurts!

When heaven looked at the Word made flesh - what was his name? Yeshua of Nazareth - it must have been hard not to feel an overwhelming sympathy that he should have taken upon himself such a name.  The good news is, he took the name and led its humanity to salvation.

The bad news is - I don't think I'm going to be able to repeat that for the name I bear!

Fabrice

When a 23-year-old Premiership footballer collapses in front of tens of thousands of people, a game is abandoned and teammates call for prayer for him following a technical death from cardiac arrest the worlds of ministry and sports chaplaincy feel very close together.

Fabrice Muanga's life, we all agree, is more important than his footballing life.  Football, even at its highest level, is nowhere near as important as life and death.  This one man's trouble has stopped thousands in their tracks and brought an encouraging humanity into the business whirl of top-level football.

But.

The beauty of what has happened in response to Fabrice's heart attack is a reason to think harder about humanity than we first imagine.  In this connection it has been passingly commented that Muanga's father came to Britain as a refugee from Congo.  From this upheaval Fabrice grew into a fine student as well as an excellent footballer.  And if he'd stayed in Congo?

Over ten years of the internal strife in that land it is estimated over five million people have died and hundreds of thousands have been raped.  Under the floodlights one man's hurt was shared by thousands but in the Congolese rainforests thousands' hurt has, too often, not been observed or shared by anyone.

This is not a fair world, though sometimes (as here) gems of kindness gleam within it.  We are about to relive the God-Man's journey to a hill where a crowd watched, a Saviour died, but more truly he was the one who was watching them - "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing".  Never a truer, kinder, or more heartfelt observation by one man. 

By one man watching a dying crowd.

Rowan

Church of England Archbishop Rowan Williams announced his resignation from that role as of the close of this year.

An atheist of Jewish heritage said, "He has done a very, very difficult job and seen the church through difficult times in a very skillful way. But most of all has shown himself to be someone of the deepest conviction and the deepest values and all my good wishes go with him."

A fellow Anglican Archbishop wrote, 'Rowan Williams took over the leadership of the Anglican Communion in 2002 when it was a happy family. Unfortunately, he is leaving behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized . . .'

Rowan Williams is a very reflective and prayerful man with a great mind.  But I doubt he can make any sense of those reactions on the public record.

Let us ask with Paul (Romans 14)

Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”  So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer,

As a Football Chaplain it is amazing to see how football can publicly unite in support of its own, but the Church cannot.  Amazing, and frankly embarrassing to its Saviour and Head.

Preparation

The season starts here.

This is the week when the players return for preseason training, something that largely determines where they get to in the football season to come.

It is 30 plus degrees today.  It is a long way from a winter's night in Hartlepool.

There is grass, but goalposts and lines will be replaced with cones and slalom posts.

No crowd roars, cheers or jeers.  Maybe an odd(!) chaplain stands and watches sympathetically (not empathetically).

In itself it is pointless.  Grass, running, a field, sweat.  It is all about the prize of victories (and bonuses) in the autumn, winter and spring.

The work of God's people on earth is not the end but a means to an end.  Making disciples really means calling people to pre-season training!

Paul wrote: I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.  Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last for ever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Ball Skills

Does a Football Chaplain need ball skills?

I've been asked a few questions about being a Sports Chaplain, but never that one.  Yet only last week I was in action with the ball yet again.  And when the ball comes to me I must, of course, make a judgement as to what move to do next, whether on the training field or, as Saturday, during a game.

Could it be that in these straightened times Chaplains are being drafted to make up the numbers?  Well no.  The ball skill I refer to is the equivalent of those demonstrated by the pet dog with the stick - the skill to catch or fetch.  Whether standing by the training field or watching, say, the youth team play there are times when in the absence of a ball boy there is a Chaplain!

The Chaplain-cum-Ballboy must do his retrieval without fuss, equipping the right player with the ball so that the player can use his abilities in the real contest.  Notwithstanding the video above, I help but do not score the goals!

In this respect, a Football Club Chaplain is very much like a Church Pastor.  As a Pastor I return the ball of ministry every time I close a meeting or complete a visit because it is the congregation who spend most of their time in the centre of the challenge in the everyday world.

Hope

Today marks the beginning of a new football season.

As chaplain to Wycombe Wanderers Football Club I have stood in the sunshine (they were running of course) on the first day back in training over a month ago. This week - a month of training and friendly matches later - everyone is geared up for the new season and full of hope.

Of the 24 teams in our league I have not seen anyone at or around the Club who thinks we can possibly end up lower than 5th.  I think we'll do better than that.

There's just a little problem.

Every one of the 46 league games will involve . . . an opposition!  Not once in those 46 games will the eleven other guys say, "Hey, we thought you'd come fifth or higher.  We'll let you win to help you."  All our hope is based on ourselves, and we haven't seen the opposition - not one of them - yet.  In this way, thousands of football fans start every season full of hope that quite quickly fades away.  Watch this space!

But back in the real world of the Bible there is a hope that cannot fade:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

Simply put, the believer's hope is based on a defeated opposition, not a waiting opposition.  Jesus is risen.  Death and sin are defeated.  This is a hope that cannot be ambushed by the Other Side! 

Fabio

It took some getting used to, having an England football coach called Fabio Capello.  Surely that must be a musical instruction? Fabio didn't speak English but football is, I quote the Football Association, a universal language. 

No point in being sniffy about these things.  Our church frontage is Italianate (apparantly).  Why should we not integrate an Italian front to our national football team?  Success!!   Fabio led our national football team to a glorious qualification for the World Cup finals tournament in South Africa and then . . .

Then Fabio, previously known for his record of successive successes, became as English as apple pie.  He led us to ignominious sporting defeat.  Football is a universal language.  And everyone says the same thing - when England play in the World Cup they get knocked out by Germany (if someone hasn't knocked them out earlier, which very nearly happened).  Fabio speaks our language!  He's entered our culture!  He's integrated - one of us now - remembered for sporting defeat.

It was so different when he was appointed.  Then, from his very limited store of English vocabulary he uttered the priceless comment (on the prospect of being England football coach),

It is a beautiful challenge

That was a first.  No English coach has ever called it that.  Nor with the benefit of a wider vocabulary and the experience of failing will Fabio himself ever utter the phrase again.  A unique way to remember him.  It inspires me to a text from Ecclesiastes for Fabio;

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what He has done from beginning to end.

Fabio has certainly driven me to think less about football and more about eternity.  The rest is self explanatory. 

Except of course the text is really about God.  The unfathomable works of God are a cause for spiritual longing and praising His glory.  The unfathomable works of Fabio became a cause for switching TV channels and planning summer vacations instead.

Lilleshall

This week dozens of Sports Chaplains met at the National Sports Centre, Lilleshall. This is annually a truly inspirational conference with some great insights into the world of sport and faith.

For example we heard about one English Football Club where, after the Manager's team talk the players are offered the chance to go to another quiet room for prayer which includes meditating on a verse of the Bible.

So, of the 11 players plus substitutes, how many - in deeply secular 21st century Europe -might be found in the prayer room?

Up to ten.

Or to put it another way; a rather higher proportion that most churches manage at their prayer meetings!

Now if they were at FC Barcelona, they'd even have a proper chapel . . .